23 Password Management

A long long time ago, your memory was so sharp that you could recite different phone numbers, different addresses and even birthdays of your near-relatives, even in your sleep.  But now, with shorter attention spans, remembering the different passwords also seems a gigantic task, what to talk about the above-mentioned!!  With newer cellphones, remembering the phone numbers has become a passé. You can store the address too in your mobile phones.  If you have read my blog on Birthday and Anniversary wishes, you can manage to remember the birthdays and anniversaries too.  Now let me tell you how to take care of different passwords too!!

With so many websites that we visit; to so many financial products that we use (banks, credit cards, tax filing etc), it is inevitable that we will have to remember different passwords. With each site having their own guidelines for the password, right from the number of characters to having at least 1 or 2 numbers, with having at least 1 special character and having one Capital letter, it is quite difficult to keep track of more than 2-3 passwords. 

One way I have been able to take care of this is to have the password in your mother tongue and satisfying the above criteria.  You can have the same password for different websites.  Think up a complicated word in your mother tongue and write the spelling in English.  Add a couple of numbers, add a special character and have one or two alphabets in capitals.  And voila, you have a password that may not be easy to guess!!  Have a liberal sprinkling of Q’s and Z’s in your spelling. Adding an “h” after Z and adding “ue” after a Q also sometimes helps in having a complicated password! 

In case you feel that having one password is fatal, have 2-3 variations of the same for other websites.  This way you need to remember 2 or 3 passwords and you can gain access to the site in a maximum of 3 attempts!!

For people who would like to have different passwords for all the sites, here is an excel sheet below where you can store the different passwords.   After entering the sheet, save the file with a password, which you will not forget!! Take a print and give it to your spouse for safekeeping.  Ensure that this sheet is kept in the locker where you keep your jewels in your almirah!!  This sheet may be worth more than the entire contents of your locker!!  God forbid, having your spouse keep this sheet will help in case there is an emergency of any type to you.  Prepare the excel sheet in a computer that only you have an access to and definitely at your home.  Not in your office computer!! 

And whenever you are visiting any website, just open this sheet and check the password.  Make sure that in case you change your password, please make a note of that in this sheet and don’t forget to give the print to your spouse.  And burn the old sheet, don’t just tear it!!

With this, you may be able to remove at least one “stress” from your life!!

Happy “passwording” with “one-less-stress” life!!  Cheers!!

Today’s daffy definition

Expert - One who know more and more about less and less!!

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